The Gylfi thread.

[Ups and Downs]

Fair play to Swansea if they get him. Showing more ambition than ( i fear ) we will ever see Reading, with or without TSI.

At £7 million, this might have seemed a high risk signing for teams at a higher level but obviously Swansea realise that hes fooking amazing and that, soon enough, everyone else will realise his potential and will fork out considerably more in the long run.

The sad thing is that RFC will be more aware of his abilities than absolutely anyone else so, to them having already sold him of once, they will be aware of his ability and his future market value.

[Royal Rother]

Spending money does not equal ambition.

It's absolutely extraordinary that we have just won the League, are in the throws of a long drawn out takeover that should provide a more secure and robust future yet people can find so many things to complain about.

I genuinely do not understand the mindset.

[Ups and Downs]

Ambition can be shown in buying a player in the confidence that, at the very least, you will be to sell him for more than you bought him for.

Do you understand that?

[winchester_royal]

So we showed ambition in buying Brett Williams?

[Ups and Downs]

No, we didn't.

If you were a medium sized property developer and you bought a house for perhaps more than you were comfortable with, but you knew the house was more than worth it so you took a chance where bigger property developers were scared to. That would be ambition.

If you were a medium sized property developer and you bought a run down house that would never be of interest to the big boys, then that's showing no ambition other than to keep at the same level.

[blueroyals]

Spending money does not equal ambition.

It's absolutely extraordinary that we have just won the League, are in the throws of a long drawn out takeover that should provide a more secure and robust future yet people can find so many things to complain about.

I genuinely do not understand the mindset.

I don't understand the mindset of Reading FC, who, despite finally figuring out that you need to spend money win promotion, seem determined to continue to buy nobodies from the lower leagues gambling that they will come good and see this as a genuinely "positive" ethos for the club. We've been gifted a return to the Premier League despite having an average squad, so let's not fcuk it up like 2007/08 and start buying some quality players.

[winchester_royal]

Your definition of ambition was

Ambition can be shown in buying a player in the confidence that, at the very least, you will be to sell him for more than you bought him for.

As far as I can tell, by that definition it doesn't matter who you buy and where you buy them from, as long as you believe their value will go up during their time here.

[leon]

So we showed ambition in buying Brett Williams?

utterly facile comment. Up to that I was kind of agreeing with you and RR but Ups and Downs makes an excellent point. We know exactly how good this boy is and what he could do for us, there's no real risk here (unless there's something about him we don't know but the club do ) he has history with us (more than Swansea especially as Rodgers might be going to Liverpool) in a straight two way fight we would be a great position so to not try to get is ridiculous, if he steers clear of injury his value is only going one way. We should be all over this.

[Ups and Downs]

Your definition of ambition was

Ambition can be shown in buying a player in the confidence that, at the very least, you will be to sell him for more than you bought him for.

As far as I can tell, by that definition it doesn't matter who you buy and where you buy them from, as long as you believe their value will go up during their time here.

I think you are being deliberately obtuse now. Any ambitious football club, especially one in the premier league, wouldn't survive there long unless they were buying players that they believed could take them forwards. But you know that already.

[winchester_royal]

So we showed ambition in buying Brett Williams?

utterly facile comment. Up to that I was kind of agreeing with you and RR but Ups and Downs makes an excellent point. We know exactly how good this boy is and what he could do for us, there's no real risk here (unless there's something about him we don't know but the club do ) he has history with us (more than Swansea especially as Rodgers might be going to Liverpool) in a straight two way fight we would be a great position so to not try to get is ridiculous, if he steers clear of injury his value is only going one way. We should be all over this.

I wasn't for one minute suggesting we were showing ambition in signing Williams, I was just questioning U&D's definition.

I don't believe ambition can be showed in the purchase of one player, I believe ambition is shown through the existence of a strategy. It seems to me our ambition is clear, slowly establish ourselves as a top 10 Premiership club through gradual investment in the infrastructure so that we can remain self-sufficient whilst continuing to grow.

As I said earlier, I believe that we have a set budget. It will be sizeable (around 10m), certainly more so than we've ever had before, but spending 60-70% of that on one player would not be smart. We have to invest in 5 or 6 areas this summer, and if we only have 3-4m left for that then the quality we bring in will not be up to standard.

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

[Avon Royal]

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

I can't think of many better ways to spend £7m than on a player that single-handedly kept Swansea up last season. They know how important he is, hence their determination to buy him.

I think that the club just assumed that he would go to an Arsenal or Liverpool, and so didn't even bother making an offer. Swansea did, and their ambition looks like it will be rewarded.

We dropped the ball on this one, pure and simple.

[winchester_royal]

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

I can't think of many better ways to spend £7m than on a player that single-handedly kept Swansea up last season. They know how important he is, hence their determination to buy him.

I think that the club just assumed that he would go to an Arsenal or Liverpool, and so didn't even bother making an offer. Swansea did, and their ambition looks like it will be rewarded.

We dropped the ball on this one, pure and simple.

Nonsense, Swansea did very well 1st half of the season without him. He certainly helped them, but 'kept them up single handedly'? No.

I'd rather we spent 2m on 5 players, than 7m on one and 500k on another 4. No point having Sigurdsson when we still have Simon Church playing up front because we don't have the money left over to buy another striker.

What both Swansea and Norwich did last season was spend reasonable amounts of money on several players that would improve the squad, rather than spending all their budget on one player.

And I'm also positive that Hammond will know exactly what's going on RE: Gylfi's situation. He hasn't signed yet either, so if we wanted to make a move then we can. I just think the club think in a similar way to me. We have to build the foundations (something Swansea had done by January) before being able to spend that amount of money IMHO.

[blueroyals]

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

I can't think of many better ways to spend £7m than on a player that single-handedly kept Swansea up last season. They know how important he is, hence their determination to buy him.

I think that the club just assumed that he would go to an Arsenal or Liverpool, and so didn't even bother making an offer. Swansea did, and their ambition looks like it will be rewarded.

We dropped the ball on this one, pure and simple.

This. We need players with flair and quality to survive in the Premier League. We can't rely on percentage balls and set-pieces. Every team seems to have some kind of quality - Swansea's style of play (and now Gylfi), Norwich have Holt who is your 15-20 goals a season striker, Stoke are a very physical side who spend money, Wigan have a great style of play also, etc...

What do teams like Wolves, Blackburn and Bolton have? They are just average sides with average players, none have a specific style of play, Much like us. They we all relegated.

Signings like Gylfi can make all the difference. He has flair, and would have offered much needed creativity down the middle. Above all he would have given us a plan B.

[Ups and Downs]

So we showed ambition in buying Brett Williams?

utterly facile comment. Up to that I was kind of agreeing with you and RR but Ups and Downs makes an excellent point. We know exactly how good this boy is and what he could do for us, there's no real risk here (unless there's something about him we don't know but the club do ) he has history with us (more than Swansea especially as Rodgers might be going to Liverpool) in a straight two way fight we would be a great position so to not try to get is ridiculous, if he steers clear of injury his value is only going one way. We should be all over this.

I wasn't for one minute suggesting we were showing ambition in signing Williams, I was just questioning U&D's definition.

I don't believe ambition can be showed in the purchase of one player, I believe ambition is shown through the existence of a strategy. It seems to me our ambition is clear, slowly establish ourselves as a top 10 Premiership club through gradual investment in the infrastructure so that we can remain self-sufficient whilst continuing to grow.

As I said earlier, I believe that we have a set budget. It will be sizeable (around 10m), certainly more so than we've ever had before, but spending 60-70% of that on one player would not be smart. We have to invest in 5 or 6 areas this summer, and if we only have 3-4m left for that then the quality we bring in will not be up to standard.

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

Ordinarily, I wouldNt disagree with a word of that. But this is a player who in the one full season he played for us showed he was good enough for the Top 4. We all know he is. McD knows he is. Yet he's off to Swansea.

We've been spoilt before with gems from he low leagues on the cheap, but I wouldn't pay big money for a single one of them to return. But with Gylfi, for once, we have the inside track. We know the lad inside out. It would be great if we bought him as an investment outside the budget. Let's be honest, these other players we are linked with might come good and might be good enough to keep us up but we KNOW he is.

[Avon Royal]

I think we have the foundations already. We have a very solid squad - what we lack is a couple of "game changers" that every club needs.

The only reasonable excuse for not at least trying to sign Gylfi would be if we don't have the money after all................

[winchester_royal]

I do think if Brian thought that Gylfi alone would keep us up then he'd bring him in.

BUT

Don't you think we need to strengthen at the back to have a chance of staying up? Don't you think we need another guy who can play in the middle because Tabb on his own isn't good enough if one of Jem or Ledge get injured? Don't you think we need to bring in a striker with pace to make the space Gylf needs?

I agree that he'd be a fantastic addition, and I would be as ecstatic as anyone were he to come back, but for me the squad is seriously lacking in depth of quality, and just him alone wouldn't keep us up, and his fee would massively limit our options in who to bring in during the rest of the summer.

Just my opinion of course, but I'd imagine that ^^ is the reason we're not in the running for him, rather than any perceived lack of ambition.

[RobRoyal]

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

I can't think of many better ways to spend £7m than on a player that single-handedly kept Swansea up last season.

They were 11th when he had his debut, and they finished the season 11th

[Avon Royal]

I agree that Sigurdsson's value will only go up, and he would be a good investment, but right now we need to be spending our money on making sure we stay up, as that is crucial to our long term strategy.

I can't think of many better ways to spend £7m than on a player that single-handedly kept Swansea up last season.

They were 11th when he had his debut, and they finished the season 11th

Exactly.

No Blackpool style slump for them.............

[Cypry]

SSN reporting Swansea have agreed a £6.8M fee this morning

[loyalroyal4life]

Hope we go in for him, anyone know how much he would cost us given they owe us money and the sell on fee?